Binance-backed traveling website Travala.com is gearing up for the launch of its blockchain-powered competitor to Airbnb.
Named Dtravel, the service will provide hosts and guests with a decentralized platform where they can rent out homes or rooms.
According to the CEO of Travala, Juan Otero, the platform will be entirely governed by its users holding the TRVL token.
Since Dtravel is a community-owned platform through the Dtravel DAO, voting and peer-to-peer communication is key here.
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Travala itself is a centralized organization allows travelers can pay using cryptocurrency for hotels, accommodations, flights, and activities. The website supports 40 different cryptocurrencies in addition to its native token, AVA.
While Travala also supports other currencies like the USD, 70% of the website’s revenue is still generated through cryptocurrency.
As Travala doesn’t offer homeshare accommodations, Dtravel will perfectly compliment the platform, and work concurrently with it. Here is what Otero comments regarding this:
The main goal here is that Dtravel will be focusing exclusively on homes and that homes vertical will be integrated on the Travala.com platform.
More On Dtravel, The Decentralized Airbnb Alternative
A seed fundraising round backed Dtravel with $5 million. The backers received the platform tokens in exchange of their funds. Some of the investors include Future Perfect Ventures, Kinetic Capital, GBV Capital, Shima Capital, and DHVC.
Dtravel’s platform fees of 7.5% is noticeably lower than Airbnb’s 14%-16%, which gives the website a competitive edge over the travel giant.
6.5% of the fees collected by Dtravel goes towards the community treasury, from where it can be spent on website upgrades as per user voting. The remaining 1% is added to an insurance pool for the hosts.
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As the world restarts after the COVID pandemic, hotel is going to become a prime opportunity for building a business.
It’s worth mentioning that Dtravel isn’t the first platform to make a blockchain-based competitor against Airbnb. The Bee Token project tried to attempt the same, but ultimately failed as it couldn’t gather enough customers.
Dtravel’s fate could be different, however. According to Otero, recent developments in blockchain technology could give it better chances at success.
Dtravel is going to be built to become a frictionless on-ramp into crypto and, just like it can become one of the largest and most decentralized DAOs in the world, it can also become one of the best use cases for crypto because travel is one of the best vehicles for crypto adoption, everybody travels, especially going into the post-covid phase.
Dtravel will launch on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain on June 16.
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